In Scandinavian languages there are many popular bird names, most of which have been recorded in the dialect archives in the Nordic countries. The thesis concentrates on the bird names for snipes, i.e. the common snipe, the great snipe, the jacksnipe and the woodcook, in all approx. 330 different names. Some of these are recognized throughout Scandinavia, while others are only sparsely confirmed in single dialects.

An especially large number of names refer to the common snipe, mainly due to its typical vibrating sound. Since the sound resembles a certain unobtrusive whinny from a horse or bleat from a goat or a sheep, many of the names contain words associating to these animals. Names describing a creaking sound mostly refer to the woodcock. Fairly common are names describing the protruding beak, a characteristic feature of all snipes.

In order to give a complete semantic and etymological picture, all words forming part of the names have been identified and sorted by category, i.e. words indicating a common implicit meaning. The categories in turn have been divided into two main groups: words describing different sounds, and words describing visual impressions. In addition, names describing popular beliefs and those transferred from other bird species are presented.

Factors that influence origin, formation, existence and development of bird names have been considered. With the etymological discussion forming the necessary background, ethnological aswell as cultural influences complete the picture of the naming process. Man's need for identification and classification of phenomena in his environment as well as the presence vs. lack of affect are important factors in the process. As is shown, a striking sound along with a particular appearence has inspired many affected popular names, while scientific names largely refer to visual, non-affected impressions.

Due to man's present lack of everyday connection with nature many of the popular bird names presented are no longer in use. However, some of the names prove to be fairly young, which shows that the process of popular classification and naming is still a functioning part of our language and culture.

This study focuses primarily on the inflection of singular place-names belonging to strong declensions and how their inflection developed in the Old Swedish period. It is based mainly on sources from Södermanland.

Examination of the dative inflections of masculine and neuter place-names suggests that by and large place-names underwent the same course of development as appellatives, the dative having almost completely disappeared as a formal category by the end of the Middle Ages. In some cases dative endings were, however, retained in place-names: for example, certain name elements tended to keep the ending when they occurred as simplexes, but lost it in compound names. The dative may then have become the general form of such names.

A special study was made of iō-stem place-names. Even in the nominative, forms ending in -e and -a predominate. The -e ending derives from the dative/accusative form, which may have become a new basic form at an early date. Reinterpretation of the dative/accusative resulted in someplace-names passing into the weak declension. Via the dative/accusative singular ending, place-names also adopted the generalized -a form which developed in plural habitative names.

In the Middle Ages a mode of inflection peculiar to place-names appeared. In Latin texts, Swedish place-names occur in a generalized form, used regardless of case. A suitable form was chosen, often an accusative which had converged with the nominative. Generalized forms of this kind are found in both Latin and Old Swedish texts. The Latin scribal tradition was a contributory factor in their introduction.

The author discusses whether place-names can be shown to have changed paradigm earlier than appellatives. Secondary -s genitives in particular, which occur earlier in place-names than in appellatives, suggest that they did. The fact that place-names exhibit secondary -s genitives in early sources may be partly due to their naming function.

This study is concerned with the extent and nature of English influence on Swedish. The main aim of the study is to investigate how loans are introduced and which factors affect their integration into Swedish. English words and phrases recorded in a number of Swedish daily newspapers are studied with regard to how factors such as linguistic adaptation to Swedish patterns, frequency, range, reference and function promote or hinder the process of integration.

A total of 6880 instances of 1014 different loans have been recorded in a corpus compromising approximately 2.7 million words. These loans have been classified as established, interim or unintegrated according to the degree of their linguistic and social integration. While established and interim loans are used mainly with referential function, unintegrated loans more often have poetic, emotive or conative function. Most loans have been recorded in articles and advertisments concerning entertainment of various kinds, in advertisments for vehicles and technical equipment and in sports columns. There are, however, differences between these categories with regard to the number of loans used, their integration, reference and function. Furthermore national and regional newspapers differ in their use of English loans.

The article discusses three place names in Jämtland, Sweden: Åbbåsen, Gåxåsen and Fjösåsen. The main focus is on the possibility of personal names used in these compound place names, together with the locally very common second element åsen (ʻridgeʼ). Previous interpretations have suggested that personal names Ubbe, Gök and Fjäder constitute first elements in the aforementioned place names, and the author agrees in two out of three cases. When studying Åbbåsen, no clear evidence has been found to support one hypothesis more than the other.

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Devine, Josefin

Institute for Language and Folklore, Department of Onomastics, Uppsala.